Pros and cons for Stanford vs Oregon
Pros
- Stanford is on a (mini)roll in the series. The past two games were possibly Stanford's best of the respective years, winning 49-7 last year and 52-27 two years ago.
They were certainly Keller Chryst's best two games at Stanford
2017: 15-21, 181 yds, 3 TDs, 1 INT, PER=181
2016: 19-26, 258 yds, 3 TDs, 0 INT, PER=195
- Oregon hasn't faced a real team in 2018. The first exposure to real football can be a shock.
- Stanford has faced two real teams so far in 2018. SDSU and $C may not make up a murderers row, but they are generally capable and big/strong/fast enough to make you have to work.
- The evidence that "Oregon is back" is thin. It seems to be mainly based on pretty good performances by the QB Herbert against Arizona and Oregon State (last year) and Bowling Green and Portland State (this year). Not exactly a defensive murderers row.
- While his receivers have been running free against bad defenses for big YAC, Herbert has only completed 57% of his passes this year - against those weak defenses. That's 11th in the Pac 12 among guys who have played enough to be eligible (which includes 2 OSU guys).
- Oregon just struggled against SJSU more than we did against UC-Davis - and Davis had beaten SJSU in San Jose two weeks ago.
- Despite some struggles, it looks to me as if 2018 Stanford is on its way to being better than 2017 Stanford - particularly 2017 at the time of the Oregon game. The defense is far more complete, the QB is better, and now we're getting an influx of guys back: Love will be back, Burkett rounding into form (hopefully), Holder looked solidly back vs Davis, others?
Cons
- Oregon has the best rush offense so far in the Pac 12 in terms of yds/gm, and third in yds/att. I am still not completely sold on our run defense. That will be job 1.
[Curiously, right now OSU is #1 in the conference in rush yds/att, with Stanford #9. There had better be substantial re-ordering here by the end of the season.]
- Game is at Autzen. Stanford has been substantially worse on the road lately. Costello has never won a game in which he was the primary QB away from Stanford stadium.
- So far, Stanford hasn't shown in can run the ball consistently and Costello has been streaky. Now, all that gets tougher on the road.
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That's it for now.
I think the pros look weightier, but really worry about performance on the road.
Pros
- Stanford is on a (mini)roll in the series. The past two games were possibly Stanford's best of the respective years, winning 49-7 last year and 52-27 two years ago.
They were certainly Keller Chryst's best two games at Stanford
2017: 15-21, 181 yds, 3 TDs, 1 INT, PER=181
2016: 19-26, 258 yds, 3 TDs, 0 INT, PER=195
- Oregon hasn't faced a real team in 2018. The first exposure to real football can be a shock.
- Stanford has faced two real teams so far in 2018. SDSU and $C may not make up a murderers row, but they are generally capable and big/strong/fast enough to make you have to work.
- The evidence that "Oregon is back" is thin. It seems to be mainly based on pretty good performances by the QB Herbert against Arizona and Oregon State (last year) and Bowling Green and Portland State (this year). Not exactly a defensive murderers row.
- While his receivers have been running free against bad defenses for big YAC, Herbert has only completed 57% of his passes this year - against those weak defenses. That's 11th in the Pac 12 among guys who have played enough to be eligible (which includes 2 OSU guys).
- Oregon just struggled against SJSU more than we did against UC-Davis - and Davis had beaten SJSU in San Jose two weeks ago.
- Despite some struggles, it looks to me as if 2018 Stanford is on its way to being better than 2017 Stanford - particularly 2017 at the time of the Oregon game. The defense is far more complete, the QB is better, and now we're getting an influx of guys back: Love will be back, Burkett rounding into form (hopefully), Holder looked solidly back vs Davis, others?
Cons
- Oregon has the best rush offense so far in the Pac 12 in terms of yds/gm, and third in yds/att. I am still not completely sold on our run defense. That will be job 1.
[Curiously, right now OSU is #1 in the conference in rush yds/att, with Stanford #9. There had better be substantial re-ordering here by the end of the season.]
- Game is at Autzen. Stanford has been substantially worse on the road lately. Costello has never won a game in which he was the primary QB away from Stanford stadium.
- So far, Stanford hasn't shown in can run the ball consistently and Costello has been streaky. Now, all that gets tougher on the road.
--------------------------------------
That's it for now.
I think the pros look weightier, but really worry about performance on the road.